Is it mostly worm waiste! and the breaking down and decomposure of everything as it looses its fresh green. Wouldn't the loss of the chlorifil cause the plant material to decompose thus dying and returng to soil in the decomposed state.

Well I know plants use carbon dioxide fron our air to make carbohydrates which the animals then eat and redpost into the envionment where it is broke down through decomposing and a certain amount goes into the soil and a certain amount is then turned back into carbon dioxide, but as to weather that would effect the color, I am not sure.. Most decomposing changes color. There is carbon in every thing organic and otherwise..so I really don't know if that would be the reason for the color change or not.. Do You Know? LOL! I don't...I am pretty unknowledgable about things like this! But I like to come learn about it ... you have some good questions posted! I like hearing the answers!!HEE HEE! I love this Forum! Learning new stuff all the time!!

In the May 2006 issue of American Naturalist, Steven D. Allison (University of California, Irvine) asks the same questions a different way: Why is the ground brown? Why don't the organisms that break down the carbon in the soil consume it all?

Some of the same ecological factors make the world green and the ground brown, especially the carbon in plant material, the role of herbivores and decomposer organisms in consuming that carbon, and the role of predators in eating the consumers of the carbon. As it turns out, as Allison observes, "the chemical structure of soil carbon makes it far more difficult to consume than plant carbon."

There is about three times as much carbon in soil than in plant biomass. In addition, minerals in the soil can block decomposers from feeding on soil carbon. Allison also points out that most decomposers are of relatively small size compared to the animals eating green leaves.

"Instead of digesting material in their guts, decomposers depend on enzymes to partially digest their food sources outside their bodies," Allison explains. "This strategy is a major constraint on the breakdown of soil carbon that helps make the ground brown."

Is it mostly worm waiste! and the breaking down and decomposure of everything as it looses its fresh green. Wouldn't the loss of the chlorifil cause the plant material to decompose thus dying and returng to soil in the decomposed state.

Well I know plants use carbon dioxide fron our air to make carbohydrates which the animals then eat and redpost into the envionment where it is broke down through decomposing and a certain amount goes into the soil and a certain amount is then turned back into carbon dioxide, but as to weather that would effect the color, I am not sure.. Most decomposing changes color. There is carbon in every thing organic and otherwise..so I really don't know if that would be the reason for the color change or not.. Do You Know? LOL! I don't...I am pretty unknowledgable about things like this! But I like to come learn about it ... you have some good questions posted! I like hearing the answers!!HEE HEE! I love this Forum! Learning new stuff all the time!!

In the May 2006 issue of American Naturalist, Steven D. Allison (University of California, Irvine) asks the same questions a different way: Why is the ground brown? Why don't the organisms that break down the carbon in the soil consume it all?

Some of the same ecological factors make the world green and the ground brown, especially the carbon in plant material, the role of herbivores and decomposer organisms in consuming that carbon, and the role of predators in eating the consumers of the carbon. As it turns out, as Allison observes, "the chemical structure of soil carbon makes it far more difficult to consume than plant carbon."

There is about three times as much carbon in soil than in plant biomass. In addition, minerals in the soil can block decomposers from feeding on soil carbon. Allison also points out that most decomposers are of relatively small size compared to the animals eating green leaves.

"Instead of digesting material in their guts, decomposers depend on enzymes to partially digest their food sources outside their bodies," Allison explains. "This strategy is a major constraint on the breakdown of soil carbon that helps make the ground brown."

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